PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Ryan Gerard appeared to clip a bird with a tee shot. David Ford spent a few minutes in the mud, then went about an hour without using his putter.
Round 1 of the Cognizant Classic had some weirdness Thursday.
It looked like Gerard hit a bird on the 207-yard, par-3 seventh hole; replays showed feathers in the air as his shot made its way to the hole, after the bird flew into the path of the ball shortly after Gerard made contact.
It wasn't clear if the bird was injured. Gerard's approach came to rest about 35 feet from the hole and the highest-ranked player in the field — No. 26 in the world — went on make a two-putt par.
Ford had a lot of adventures.
He started on the back nine and was 1 over when he got to the par-3 17th, his eighth hole of the day. His tee shot headed toward the water, came to rest in the mud, and he tried to play from there up a hill toward the green.
The shot made it halfway up, then rolled back to the mud. He tried again. Same thing. Enough was enough; he walked back to the drop area and wound up making a quadruple-bogey 7.
“My brain was instantly going towards one bad hole can’t do too much damage to me if I play great the rest of the way coming in, and if my game is good enough to win, then it should be no problem to have a good finish,” Ford said. “Even with a quad.”
The power of positive thinking.
He got those four shots back in two holes, with back-to-back eagles on the par-4 second and par-5 third — part of three consecutive holes where he holed out from off the green. Ford connected from 144 yards out on No. 2, chipped in from about 30 yards on No. 3, then holed a bunker shot to save par at No. 4 after leaving his previous shot in the same bunker.
“It was insane ... a wild round,” Ford said.
Ford finished at 1-over 72. Gerard shot a 2-over 73.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Adam Scott, from Australia, left, shakes hands with Ryan Gerard after finishing the first round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
NEW YORK (AP) — A social media content creator was arrested Thursday after New York City police said he was one of a number of people who pelted officers with snow and ice during a massive snowball fight in Washington Square Park this week.
Gusmane Coulibaly, 27, was charged with obstructing governmental administration, a misdemeanor, and harassment, a non-criminal violation.
He appeared in handcuffs and wearing an olive-green sweat suit during his arraignment Thursday evening in Manhattan criminal court. He wasn't asked to enter a plea, and was released, pending his next court date on April 9.
Coulibaly didn't speak during the brief hearing, which was attended by at least a dozen uniformed police officers and police union officials.
But George Vomvolakis, his attorney, told the judge that the “circumstances surrounding his arrest have been politicized.” He suggested Coulibaly was caught in the middle of a rift between the police department and City Hall.
“I don’t want to minimize what happened to the officers, but I think the police department is using this because of their dislike or disdain for the mayor,” Vomvolakis said. “I think they’re taking it out on Mr. Coulibaly. They want to pick a fight with the mayor.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, played down the fracas earlier this week as a “snowball fight that got out of hand” and suggested he did not think criminal charges were warranted.
Monday’s snowball fight, which appeared to be organized by social media content producers, caused a chaotic scene as a large crowd amassed at the popular park to wing snowballs at each other during a winter storm.
Prosecutors said in court that officers arrived at the park after a 911 call about a disorderly group, including people climbing on a roof.
Video from the incident shows a large group of people following police officers, showering them with snowballs and jeering, as they retreat to their vehicles outside the park. Videos also showed officers shoving at least two people to the ground while getting hit from all directions by snowballs.
“The notion that this was a playful snowball fight obviously is not true,” Patrick Hendry, a police union president, told reporters after the proceeding. “This was an attack on the uniform that these police officers wear so proudly every day. They came after these police officers, pelting them with ice, rocks.”
Hendry said he was disappointed prosecutors didn’t charge Coulibaly with assaulting an officer — the felony offense police originally proposed.
“It sends a horrible message to these police officers right here that the mayor is not going to have our backs,” he said, standing alongside other officers. “You’re putting a target on these police officers’ backs.”
Vomvolakis maintained there was no evidence that rocks or ice were packed into the snowballs.
“What I saw in the video didn’t look like an attack," Vomvolakis said. "Did it go a little past, you know, jokes and fun? Was it possibly a little disrespectful to the police? Yes.”
Assistant District Attorney Victoria Notaro said video showed Coulibaly throwing a snowball that struck Officer Nicholas Johnson in the face, but prosecutors did not find evidence showing that the officer’s injuries were caused “directly by this defendant’s conduct.”
The officer sustained injuries including redness, tenderness and pain to his eye, head and neck, Notaro said.
“We will continue to investigate,” she added.
Vomvolakis said Coulibaly is a content creator who makes “elaborate videos” including a recent one in which he approached a stranger in a Bronx subway, acted as if he knew him and said he was owed money.
That interaction got Coulibaly arrested for attempted robbery — a charge that Vomvolakis said he was confident would be dismissed.
Coulibaly has hundreds of thousands of followers across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and other social media platforms, where he posts under the moniker Diaper Man.
The city's police department has released images of three other people it is seeking in connection with the snowball fight. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has called the treatment of officers at the fight “disgraceful” and “criminal.”
Associated Press reporter Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, contributed to this report.
Gusmane Coulibaly, left, listens as his lawyer, George Vomvolakis speaks to members of the media after Coulibaly's initial court appearance, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in New York, on charges alleging he threw a snowball at a police officer. (AP Photo/Michael Sisak)
Gusmane Coulibaly is arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in New York, after he was arrested for getting into a snowball fight with the NYPD. (Curtis Means/The Daily Mail via AP, Pool)
Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry speaks to reporters after an initial court appearance for a man suspected of throwing snowballs at police officers. Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Michael Sisak)
In this photo taken from video, people throw and duck snowballs during a snowball fight at Washington Square Park, Monday, February. 23, 2026 in New York. (AP Photo/David R. Martin)
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during a news conference in Morningside Heights in New York, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Ferries pass Brooklyn Bridge Park along the East River, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
